Writing Fellows Faculty Access

General Program Information

Program Description

The Writing Fellows Program is designed to achieve central college-wide objectives while concurrently helping students achieve important personal educational goals. The Program views academic writing as a dynamic process that must be taught and practiced in order to be learned. All writers can improve by sharing works in progress and revising them, and the Writing Fellows Program enhances this process by making time for such review and revision. Students receive the individualized attention they need as they learn disciplinary conventionsand reinforce good writing habits. The collaboration fostered by Fellows and faculty is an effective mode of learning that creates better, more engaged writers. The result is the kind of clarity in written communication that is valued in every discipline and rated highly by this institution.

Writing Goals and Objectives

A major goal of the Writing Fellows Program is to help students improve their writing through revising drafts in response to reader review. The program allows students to receive continued reinforcement of the principles and strategies learned in composition classes. An added benefit is that the Fellows are able to improve their own writing and editing skills as a result of their work with their peers. This kind of student collaboration also builds a sense of academic community and sensitizes this community to the importance of clear writing. Another goal of the Writing Fellows Program is to enable faculty to incorporate additional writing assignments into their courses, with support from a Fellow at various stages of the drafting process. Because the focus of the Writing Fellows’ assistance is on general writing and rhetorical skills, faculty members can more easily address the content about which students are writing. The collaborative process demands more intellectual investment from students, but it may also encourage faculty to clarify their expectations for students’ written work, thus enhancing the quality of their writing assignments. The Writing Fellows Program ultimately can assist faculty to achieve a crucial learning goal of this institution: the improvement of our students’ ability to write clear prose that reflects critical reading and thinking skills, lucid thought, and active engagement in the learning process.

Tutoring and Fellowing

Both tutoring and Fellowing involve one-on-one interactions between a trained student worker and the student requesting help. However, writing tutors generally work with students whose papers they have not seen beforehand and whose professors they have not met. Writing Fellows work with students in one course taught by a professor with whom they have met and conferred regarding the assignment. Fellows have already read and made comments and suggestions on the students’ drafts before the conference.

Who are Writing Fellows?

Writing Fellows are students who excel at writing and have been trained to provide helpful feedback on their peers’ papers. A Writing Fellow is assigned to a specific course whose professor has requested to participate in the program. The Fellow then works with each student in the course each time a paper is assigned. Fellows read and respond to drafts; they do not grade papers. Using written comments and face-to-face conferences, they help students focus, develop, and organize their writing. Fellows are not teaching assistants who instruct students on the subject matter of the assigned course. They are attentive readers who offer students advice for revising a paper before it is handed in to the professor for a grade.

For more information about the program such as how to apply, requirements for both faculty and students, and for the required forms, please click on one of the following links: